I think we're getting to a consensus, which is always a good thing - with some minor disagreements to settle. I believe that woke-ism is the result of losing national seriousness and maturity.

What identity politics ultimately does is draws attention to arbitrary characteristics that differentiate people and attempts to view everything through that lens. The ideology is one akin to 'don't think of pink elephants' - it asks you to combat racism by drawing attention to the underlying differences of skin colour. It's not that BIPOC are or aren't disadvantaged, it's that you can't solve the problem using the cause. When society groups by skin colour, it mixes the concepts of privilege into a cerebral space that is meaningless. You can make the case that Oprah Winfrey has less privilege than white homeless drifters, but the fact you're correct is meaningless. The argument itself is divisive - and one that encourages white working class people to vote for the right. Demagogues thrive on difference. Identity politics encourages people to see difference everywhere and to continually break into smaller and smaller groups with ever more increasing definitions of what constitutes oppression.

And when it comes to your collective identity as US Citizens (I'm a Brit) - I see your best bet as something akin to the FDR New Deal policies. That has to be a unified effort to get past COVID. Identity politics will not encourage people to think this way, instead all the niche groups will focus on their own aspect of disadvantage and squabble amongst themselves about who is being left out. China may prove to be another good bet - but I suspect that appeals more to the nationalist right and would be challenged by Asian-Americans as racist. Without recourse to challenge that, China as a uniting xenophobic enemy will not get off the ground.

I don't have the answer either - but I've enjoyed the journey to this point. This is exactly what Medium is for and hopefully people may follow our comment thread to get an expanded, polite and reasoned debate about the subject.. :o)